Why Her?, or Why Oh Soo-Jae? in Korean, is unquestionably a fitting term. You’re unsure whether the arrogant, cynical Oh Soo-Jae (Seo Hyun-jin) deserves our time and attention from the very first minute. She is undoubtedly an inspiring lady who, despite having only a high school certificate and daily struggles with sexism, sexual harassment, and socioeconomic differences, managed to climb the corporate ladder and become a lawyer.
Her tongue is as sharp as her clothing and wit, she doesn’t make mistakes, she rules over her subordinates with an iron fist, she is a champion of “men ain’t shit,” and she is not above using dubious methods to win her cases as a result of years of suffering through the grind. Understandably, she has become cutthroat.
But occasionally Soo-Jae’s callousness marks her uplifting portrayal of a “self-made woman.” She exclaims that she is TK Law Firm and the firm is here, which is too arrogant for her own good. She is indifferent to people or causes.
She frequently errs toward condescending. She ruthlessly dismisses Park So-young (Hong Ji-yoon), a rape victim who is trying to pursue charges against a powerful politician, halfway through the pilot. She berates the young girl’s professional decisions while looking her in the eye, threatening to make her life a living hell.
Unfortunately, this leads to her failure. So-Young jumps to her death from the TK Law Firm’s rooftop as she is leaving work that evening. Something inside the lawyer is roiled as Soo-Jae surveys So-dismembered young’s body and strewn shoes, which are the same ones as hers. Her ivory-colored façade begins to deteriorate slowly but inevitably.
The results are immediate and negative. Although Soo-Jae insists she had nothing to do with So-Young’s suicide, the growing outrage from the public is precisely what her company needed to bring her down a few notches. She is “exiled” to work as an adjunct professor at the law school of Seojung University, where she finally meets the friendly, hardworking student Gong Chan (Hwang In-yeob), oblivious of their prior relationship.
This brings up the obvious question once more: Why Oh Soo-Jae? We admire Soo-Jae’s desire and drive. Both at home and at work, we acknowledge her hardships and lived experiences. Despite all of this, we find it difficult to empathize with her given the circumstances surrounding her behavior.
We say, “Oh, that’s harsh, but she kind of had it coming,” when she is banished. We laugh when she neglects her responsibilities as a lecturer. We should inquire: Why are we meant to be concerned about her? Why should we take a chance on her?
While the solution is not immediately apparent, as we catch glimpses of Soo-Jae’s life and her goodness, we begin to warm to change. She insists on having private audiences, for example, when she is aware that certain details could traumatize an innocent person. To carry out justice, she risks her own comfort. When she considers pushing a lady to commit suicide, she breaks down. She was a nice woman until someone viciously stamped her mousy demeanor out of her.
Don’t misunderstand us: Why Her? is not an effort to defend Oh Soo-Jae. Instead, it is a complex query regarding the show’s title character, the answers to which will be gradually made known throughout the program. All of the cards are on the table. We can draw our own conclusions.
The screenplay of the drama and Seo Hyun-compelling jin’s depiction of Soo-Jae accurately capture the ambiguities in her personality. Without a doubt, she steals the show. However, it raises questions about how unjustly powerful women are portrayed in media.
Although it is obvious that Oh Soo-Jae is more nuanced than just her gaslight, gatekeeper, and girl boss attitude, the notion that women must always cater to one extreme or another undermines the intricacy of her character and makes some of her choices unclear. Although reconciling these two sides and finding her own identity appears to be the larger goal, at the moment, the extremes Soo-Jae is vacillating between make that change a huge mountain to climb.
This also raises the question of whether the nearby characters are real individuals or just tools for the story. While it’s encouraging to see Hwang In-yeob finally taking on more challenging parts, his current life is dependent on his relationship with Soo-Jae from the past. His main driving force is, well, Soo-Jae, even though he is the just, decent man getting over a terrible past. Is it her or the concept of the woman he met years ago that he truly loves?
We need to think about the relationship between Soo-Jae and Gong Chan’s ethics while we’re still coming to terms with it. He is not just her student, but – minor spoiler alert – she has also previously worked as his attorney.
The prior relationship between Soo-Jae and Gong Chan breaks multiple regulations, at least in the real world, even though student-teacher interactions are problematic on their own.
Speaking of conceivable possibilities, Why Her? may have too many conveniences for viewers to take anything seriously, even though we recognize that TV productions generally stray from the law. In the flash of an eye, the footage is collected, students go into heavily secured facilities wearing flimsy disguises, and unlawfully obtained material is sometimes helpful and other times inadmissible.
The only thing that is possibly more unbelievable than the coincidences is Soo-Jae’s teaching style: she storms into the classroom, channels her inner Viola Davis from the film How to Get Away with Murder, and writes one sentence on the blackboard, “Never let your client end up in prison,” and then leaves. The students’ sorrow about overpaying for law school is practically palpable.
You’ll watch Why Her? despite how far it deviates from the truth. for one purpose and one purpose alone: Ouch, Soo-Jae. It all comes down to a crucial scene in the pilot, when Soo-Jae discovers, to her surprise, that she and So-young were both wearing the same pair of shoes.
This is a lyrical way of saying that, despite their differences, Soo-Jae and So-young were in comparable situations. Ironically, she eventually becomes just as helpless as So-young because they are both being held hostage by their immediate surroundings and fighting a system that is biased against them.
Soo-Jae realizes she may have been standing on a cardboard spine at that precise moment. She had been shielded from the painful truth that she was and would always be an outsider and that the world would never treat her fairly by her assumption that getting to a high enough position would somehow provide her protection.
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Oh Soo-Jae, however, is nothing if not obstinate. Once she comes to terms with the truth, she opens up a new path for growth that could take her toward personal progress, love, and serious peril. She might be able to handle the challenge, which may be why the show put all the pressure on her in Why Her?
Every Friday and Saturday, new episodes of Why Her? are broadcast on the South Korean television network SBS. In some areas, Viu and Viki will also have these episodes available.
